Online Game Idea

Quote:Originally posted by LordViking I'll work up a set of rules for the economy, character development is a bit too hard at the moment, I need to put some more thought into it, but my economy ideas are ready for application. I'll put some work in the doc this weekend.

LordViking, after so many people with born-mad MMORPG ideas, you are a beacon of hope. I am glad to see that you realise the heart of a game like this is not the 3D graphics or the types of magic sword, but rather the economic framework that governs incentive and how characters interact. And my Nobel-Prize winning avatar would doubtless be impressed if he knew. (That last sentence will look pretty foolish if I change said avatar to someone other than Milton Friedman.)

It's been a while, and unfortunatley, it will be a while longer. I am incredibly busy and have been unable to develop anything storywise or gamewise. So please, if you feel like you can contribute to this project, please do. I think I may have time to work on this project by December... I am hoping someone can take up the creative reigns until then.

The Single Player Storyline:
The game will cover the story of Olaf Bloodaxe, a Viking. While on an expedition to America with his good pal Leif discovered two magic rings enabling the wearers to become immortal. So, naturally, Olaf and Leif both took one. Olaf and Lief then toured the world seeing the sights, etc. They finally returned home to a changed Europe. The year was 1315, the Viking raids had stopped, and their friends were all having a good time up in Valhalla. So they decided to make a name for themselves and go adventuring through Europe. So they went about, earning loot from dragon's caves and so forth.
Eventually, they came to a village in the shadow of a castle in South East Europe. (I will come up with a name for the castle and the country later). Olaf and Lief were only planning a quick stopover, but a local Vampire (whose name I will invent later) had other plans. Before they had gone to sleep, Leif had unwittingly taken off his ring and put it beside his bed. The vampire, whose power had been declining recently, needed the ring to return to his former greatness.
Leif awoke to find his ring gone, and himself incredibly infeebled. Without his ring, he would surley die, for the ring's power could no longer sustain him, and he had lived for 500 years. It was now Olaf's responsibility to find his friend's ring or he woudl die.

Ok, that's what I have for the storyline. I think the game should have a look much like Zelda games of yore, 2D Fake Isometric. The game will be mission driven, taking Olaf and Leif through 700 years at least. The economic system mentioned in previous posts will be continued, and will change as time goes on, i.e. the development of steam power required sources of coal. The game will a political system for faction power. By faction I mean the power of Vampires vs. Beasts vs. Half-Vamps vs. Humans. Each mission will change the power balance, with multiple endings to shift it whichever way someone would want, i.e. Olaf has taken a liking to the Vamps, so he'll help them out, of course, this would require his friend to die, which would probably make Olaf sad, and Leif would come back from Valhalla to kick his ass from time to time. Olaf could also probably become a vampire, and he could sell his ring for a substantial amount of money.

What do you think? I still have no programming or artistic ability to speak of, so I cannot develop this idea myself yet.

I'd be willing to help with the project. I'm decent with C++ and just started (about two weeks ago) learning SDL and OpenGL. I also am good with music (thanks to 6 years of band and a personal interest in guitar) so I can try to do some of that too. To see what I currently have learned and applied (and some things I haven't) please check out my website. I'll go on right after I post this to be sure there is an updated build of my current 2.5D Engine (yes I said 2.5. I like to call it that because all the scenery, buildings, boxes, things like that are rendered in full 3D whereas the character, the enemies (when I get to them), items (again, when I get to them) will all be 2D. The only reason some of these haven't been put in is because of time and the fact that I'm the only one on the project so I can't do everything at once.

As for your idea, I like the idea. Will the player's be able to be vampires or just towns-people? Also if they can be vampires or beast-people, will there be a limit (to make sure we don't have 300,000 vampires and 12 people in the town)? I think a 2D version would be great as well. Maybe go with a Zelda look (Zelda from SNES or Gameboy, not the full 3D N64 versions).

Either way, I'm interested in doing this. In fact, if you want to IM me or email me sometime I'd get started working right away. I really have no need to continue current projects, they're simply me testing what I've learned and seeing how I can apply it. Let me know what to do and send some info over and I'll see what I can do. Also let me know who else is on the project at this point so I can communicate with them. Hope this project goes through. Sounds fun.

applekid Wrote:I myself have lots of designs but haven't been ready to share them with anybody. (They're more like a business plan to me. My dream is creating my own game company to develop my own games. )

I myself have the motherload game all planned out down to the math of it all. And nobody can know until it comes out from SimReality Games in like 5 years. Ha sounds so stupid but it will come out eventually.

I have the same dream. Next fall I'm moving down near Chicago to go to Westwood College. You should check it out. Three year bachelor degree in Game Software Development. I went down for a visit and the place is pretty cool. Check out the DuPage campus. Really nice with a PowerMac G4 lab and all. Then I'm going to stick around the area and really start up SimReality Games with my friend (programmer/3d artist) and brother (artist).

LordViking Wrote:I plan to have this game encompass more than 500 years, since Vampires are immortal. This will be accomplished by having the humans just have last names entered, i.e. you are a family of one, so your family somehow keeps going.

I think you should allow players to have full names. Just have the families have kids that they get to name and play when they (their character) die.

Its also important to note that there are quite a few free 3d Engines out there that are more than suitable to create a shareware game of the nature being discussed here. I doubt very much that a small hobbyist type team could produce a large volume of content, but the intensive programming could be bypassed if the programmer can learn an engine API and has some scripting skills. Remember not to reinvent the wheel.

I do agree that starting simple is the only way to go though. The problem isnt that you guys couldn't make this game, its that history is against you. Most people dont finish anything. That is the most important part and why anybody who has done anything in the business tells you to start simple. Card games, etc. are familiar, easy, and approachable.

For instance, Lockdown2000, how would you begin a project like this. What path would you take to see it to completion. These are difficult questions that require much more thought than first I will write a script, then develop the engine to support the features the script calls for, etc. A project of this size needs a timeline, a design doc, more than one programmer, more than one artist, etc. Experience makes all the difference.